The 2001 State Trails Network Plan

The State Trails Network Plan accomplishes the following:

• Clarifies the DNR’s intent to establish a statewide network of trails
• Identifies the system of trails that create the statewide trail network, amending the State Trails Strategic Plan.
• Identifies rail corridors in which the DNR may have an interest if and when abandonment is considered.
• Shortens the land acquisition approval process for new trails.
• Encourages local governments, DNR and DOT to consider connections between recreational trails and roadway routes to provide a comprehensive and seamless system for bicyclists traveling from their homes to employment, commercial and recreational facilities.
• Encourages local governments to work together toward a common goal and encourages partnerships between local governments and DNR. The plan would be a tool for local government's use in planning and developing trail systems connecting with the statewide network. The plan should be considered when developing the transportation element of local comprehensive plans.

Selection Objectives

The DNR's choice of potential recreational trail corridors is based on the following objectives:

• Proximity to population centers that offer connections to a statewide network of recreational trails.
• Existing rail corridors with a high potential for abandonment, utility and natural feature corridors as described below.

• Existing historical sites, tourist attractions, state and county parks, and other significant features.
• Links to existing federal, state, county and municipal trails.
• Links to interstate trails in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Michigan.
• "Natural feature" corridors tied to rivers and other scenic landscape patterns, including major topographic features.

Separate and distinct from this list are ecological habitat corridors that allow for the movement of animal species and plant colonization. These corridors will be discussed in the Land Legacy Study

Corridor Types

Five types of corridors are described.

• Rail corridors
• Utility corridors
• Potential routes of streets, roads, and major highways or easements as connectors.
• Natural features trail corridors, such as the Capital City and Ice Age trails.
• Trails within the water, i.e. lakeshore or parallel waterways i.e. rivers and streams, to provide water-based recreation, such as canoeing and kayaking along rivers.

Rail Corridors

Of the state’s 4,100 miles of operating rail line, this plan identifies more than 1,800 miles as potential trail corridor.

In 1979, the Natural Resources Board directed the DNR to refrain from taking a position on any proposed rail corridor abandonment. Often, however, the DNR has only 30 to 60 days in which to act if and when a rail line is abandoned. Identifying corridors for potential trail development enables the DNR to act more quickly by shortening the process for land acquisition approval.

Some trails are created under the "interim trail use" authority. The Surface Transportation Board, once rail line abandonment is approved, can allow the railroad to negotiate with a public agency for conversion of the corridor to trail use. This process essentially "railbanks" a corridor for possible future rail use. The Surface Transportation Board assigns interim use of the corridor to a qualified public or private agency if that agency agrees to manage the trail and cover all associated expenses, including taxes and liability.

Consideration should also be given to the "rails-with-trails" approach. This involves constructing a multipurpose public pathway beside an active rail line, within the same corridor, designed for safety for all users and acceptable to the railroad.

Currently, the DNR is working with the state Attorney General's office and the federal Bureau of Land Management to determine who owns a discontinued railroad grade that was part of a federally granted right-of-way. The grant requires a formal declaration of abandonment from a court of competent jurisdiction or an act or Congress, instead of the usual Surface Transportation Board determination. Once this case is resolved the DNR will know how, and if, to proceed on other federally granted right-of-ways in Wisconsin.

Utility Corridors

Utility corridors can provide excellent off-road trail opportunities. They are generally more abundant in the populated areas of the state where trail demand is often the greatest. In southeast Wisconsin, a number of existing and potential trail routes are located on utility corridors.

Connectors: Roads or Easements

This plan identifies potential connectors or links to abandoned rail corridors that would be made via road or easement. Once the DNR has the opportunity to purchase a rail corridor requiring a connector, the DNR will work with appropriate agencies, local government or citizens to create these connections, which will be considered case by case as needed in view of the overall system.

Appropriate "trail" improvements within a highway corridor could range from a separate path to a paved shoulder to no additional treatment at all on lightly traveled roads. The eventual recommended treatment would depend on traffic volume, width of the right-of-way, highway geometrics, cost, the number and type of anticipated users, and maintenance considerations. Most of the identified highway corridor connections will likely be served by providing paved shoulders that benefit bicyclists and walkers.

The DNR has DOT have an opportunity to coordinate during the trail feasibility planning process by actively working with highway departments and taking advantage of any opportunities to address connections in highway planning efforts. This is especially important since most road-based links can be achieved most efficiently during highway reconstruction projects.

Where corridors are in private ownership, the DNR and other entities have the potential to work out easements that would allow the trail to pass across private lands.

Natural Features Trail Corridors

A natural features trail corridor is a naturally occurring linear corridor such as along a river (e.g. Nine Springs Creek beside the Capital City Trail) or related to a landscape or major topographic feature such as the glacial footprints along the Ice Age Trail.

The Capital City Trail in Dane County capitalizes on state, county and university owned properties within the Dane County Nine Springs E-way Corridor. Specific ecological landscape and/or scenic features are likely to be the basis for natural features trails that may emerge as part of the Land Legacy Study.

The Department is currently a partner on two natural features trail corridors: the Ice Age and North Country National Scenic Trails. The 1,200-mile route of the Ice Age Trail, designated a State Scenic Trail in 1987, generally follows the end moraine of the most recent glaciation through local, county and state-owned lands. At this time about 500 miles of this premier-walking trail are open for public use. The general route of the trail, set in a 1983 comprehensive plan, still requires considerable land acquisition before the 1,000-mile route is in place.

The Department's Five-Year Land Acquisition Plan identified projects that needed to be completed by June, 2000. These included feasibility studies for the Ice Age Trail through Marathon, Sauk, Polk, Northern Columbia, Sheboygan and Manitowoc. The prioritization of all pending feasibility studies, to include the ones listed above, will be considered in the Land Legacy Study process next year.

The North Country National Scenic Trail was approved as a DNR project in October 2000, with the Natural Resources Board approval of a trail corridor plan for three of its four counties. Approval of the trail as a project will allow expenditures by the Department for land acquisition, as lands become available from willing landowners. The North Country National Scenic Trail runs for 4,200 miles, crossing seven states from Crown Point State Historic Site in New York to Sakakawea State Park on the Missouri River in North Dakota, where it joins the Lewis and Clark National Forest and various state and county lands. The trail crosses Wisconsin for 390 miles. Of that amount, 170 miles is on public land, such as the Chequamegon National Forest and various state and county land. About 180 miles will be located on privately owned land in the project area. Another 40-mile section of the trail that runs east from Copper Falls State Park to Hurley will be added to the project area at a later date once a trail corridor planning process is completed.

Water Trails

Wisconsin’s lakes and streams, great and small, have provided transportation, commerce, and recreation, throughout the State’s history. The Department, in partnership with local interests and regional or statewide organizations, will help to build a stronger coalition around the educational and recreation opportunities provided by Wisconsin’s water trails, as part of the State Trails Network.

The demand for water-based recreation opportunities in Wisconsin continues to increase. The DNR Strategic Plan has a major goal of Providing Outdoor Recreation. One strategy for achieving that goal encourages the agency to promote and improve recreational opportunities on state waters and on public and private lands through partnerships with people, governments, tribes, businesses and other organizations.

By the end of 2001 the Department will improve the identification of water trail opportunities within, along, and near state lands, and will collaborate with others interested in improving educational and recreation water trail opportunities.

Implementation

As the identified potential trail corridors become available for conversion to recreational trails, the DNR will work in partnership with the state Department of Transportation, local and county governments, regional planning commissions, user groups and others to implement the State Trails Network Plan. Important connections between these trails will be developed by working with DOT and local highway departments as appropriate or via easement as described above, case-by-case.

As segments become available the DNR will help facilitate acquisition, and in some instances development, as funding and grant availability allow. Cooperative trail partnerships will continue to be an important part of the state trail system. In these situations DNR acquires the trail grade, and local partners develop, maintain and operate the trail. Various sources of funding are available for local governments interested in cooperative trail partnerships.

DOT and DNR will consult one another when trails, consistent with this plan, are ready for a connection via a state highway. The feasibility and timing of incorporating different types of trails will be evaluated project-by-project by comparing the statewide trail needs with the DOT’s Wisconsin Bicycle Transportation Plan 2020, the State Highway Plan, Six-Year Highway Improvement Program and the Wisconsin Pedestrian Plan along with the priorities established through the DNR's Land Legacy Study.

Summary

This plan describes a vision of a statewide network of interconnected trails that feed into smaller state, county, municipal, private and state partnership trails. To make progress on the network the DNR will continue working with local units of government, the Department of Transportation and other partners to create the connections that will continue providing citizens the opportunity to recreate and transport safely.

2001 Wisconsin State Trails Network Plan

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